Timeline by Ryan Evans

January 15, 1929 - Dr. King is born

ryanevans14 — 2025-02-05 13:56:42 UTC

Michael (Martin) Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was an activist, minister and missionary.

1944-1951 - Dr. King in college

ryanevans14 — 2025-02-05 14:04:24 UTC

MLK Jr. was admmited into Morehouse college at age 15 in 1944 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948. He then entered Crozier Theological Seminary at age 19 where he recieved his Bachelor in Divinity degree in 1951.

- Dr. King gets his second degree and meets his wife

ryanevans14 — 2025-02-05 14:14:40 UTC

He entered Boston University at age 26 in 1951 to study for Philosophy in Systematic Theology, which he graduated from with a doctorate in 1955. He met his wife during this time in Boston, Massachusetts as she was studying at the New England Conservatory while he was at Boston University.

Age 25 - Dr. King receives his first job

ryanevans14 — 2025-02-05 14:18:08 UTC

His first job was as a pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptists Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

1955 - Dr. King's boycott speech

ryanevans14 — 2025-02-05 14:22:44 UTC

Just 4 days after the historical event of Rosa Park's arrest on the 5th of December of 1955 Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous boycott speech.

1957 - Dr. King's SCLC organization

ryanevans14 — 2025-02-05 14:33:15 UTC

In 1957 MLK Jr. founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which was a civil rights organization that advocated for equal rights in Alabama and America overall. Along with MLK, however, Bayard Rustin, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, and others, aided in founding this organization for the purpose of having "a regional organization that could better coordinate civil rights protest activities across the South."

Jobs and Freedom - Dr. King's "I have a dream speech"

ryanevans14 — 2025-02-05 18:33:32 UTC

On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. Gave his famous "I have a dream" speech at the March on Washington and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

March 25, 1965 - Dr. King's work in Selma Alabama

ryanevans14 — 2025-02-05 18:40:29 UTC

Starting March 25, 1965 MLK Jr. led thousands of nonviolent protestors on a 54 mile march that lasted 5 days. He led this march to aid in the fight for voters rights along with the local African Americans, SCLC, and SNCC that were already protesting in Selma Alabama

1968 - Dr. King moves on

ryanevans14 — 2025-02-05 18:45:03 UTC

April 4, 1968, at the ripe age of 39, Dr. Micheal (Martin) Luther King Jr. was assasinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee and officially pronounced dead at 7:05 pm.

1963 - Dr. King in Birmingham

ryanevans14 — 2025-02-06 02:55:00 UTC

On April 16, 1963 MLK Jr. and the SCLC protested alongside the preexisting protesters and ACMHR to attack the city's segregation system. During this time MLK was imprisoned and subjected to unusually harsh jail conditions. This is also when and where he wrote the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in address to the critisizm against his advocacy for human rights.